Helen O Connell
Stone has long been considered the mythical image of death
struck silent and lifeless. Yet for me stone is a layered preserved
repository of past experience emanating its own energy. When the
Killkenny limestone I use in my sculpture was being formed from
compressed marine life forms, the island of Ireland was still a part
of mainland Europe in terms of plate tectonics. These frozen
geological moments excite me as I intimately move through the
stone molecule by molecule, grain by grain. The Portuguese
marble I sculpt with has been lovingly and painstakingly excavated
from piles of discarded stones in the quarries of Alentejo. I have
selected each stone for it’s unique veins, coloration and individual
particularity.
I firmly believe in the trans formative power of music. It has always
played a vital role in every aspect of my life as a literal
accompaniment and inspiration for my work and as a guide to my
spiritual and physical well being. Having a musician as a boyfriend
for the last few years has led me into more direct contact with
some very alluring musical instruments which I had hitherto only
known from photographs. I became fascinated by the beauty of the
forms of the instruments as objects in themselves and the
craftsmanship behind their construction and developed a desire to
pay homage to them. I became interested in the fact that both
stone and musical instruments are static repositories of transitory
realities.
Musical instruments are temporarily vitalised and animated by the
musicians that play them, only to return to their state as silent,
inanimate objects. Yet their physicality seems to hold some of the
energy of their temporal, active state. Similarly I find a lingering
echo of the vital earth processes and geological ruptures that
were involved in the formation of these stones to be enduringly
present in the stones. Many of the stones bear evidence of
dramatic geological moments in unexpected vibrant splashes of
colour.
There is no immediacy with stone, especially not in the creative
endeavour involved in stone sculpture. To work the stone
necessitates a steady, patient, methodological approach. At a time
when we have such a sophisticated and pervasive visual culture
battling for our constant attention, the stone remains still and
quiet, patiently awaiting our attention when we have it to give, but
never demanding it of us. The art historian E.H.Gombrich has
argued for the heightened importance of natural materials such as
stone at a time when so much of our visual stimuli come to us
mediated through some form of technology. The direct touch is
important. I would invite people to indulge in a tactile response to
these sculptures if they feel so inclined.
The Stone The Circle The Rhythm
